MIT DUSP

10/08/2026

This fall semester, the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) welcomes Alex Cabral as Assistant Professor of Environmental Health and Sociotechnical Systems, and Monica Rhodes as a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar.

Alex shares her appointment with DUSP and the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. She is the director of the SEED Lab, which works with communities to design, develop, and deploy sensing and data infrastructure for environmental health and social wellbeing.

Professor Holly Harriel will be Monica’s faculty host at DUSP, where she will work with the MIT CoLab on new initiatives focused on climate change, HBCUs, and AI.

Welcome to DUSP, both!

Read more on the DUSP website: dusp.mit.edu/news/dusp-welcomes-new-assistant-professor-and-mlk-visiting-scholar

10/05/2026

Check out this new book from our very own PhD student JS Tan! Read more of the story on MIT News — and attend the launch event at the MET Warehouse on October 26: https://news.mit.edu/2026/documenting-tech-worker-movement-0918

09/30/2026

Read more about this work via the recent MIT News story! https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-transit-lab-to-develop-ai-platform-public-transit-agencies-0930

09/28/2026

09/25/2026

A number of community members from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) are participating in the inaugural MIT Future Fest, a creative festival starting next week from September 30 – October 4!

MIT Future Fest unlocks labs, workshops, and theaters across campus for five days of in-person experiences, exhibitions, tours, performances, and unexpected connections — pulling renowned researchers and curious first-timers alike into the shared thrill of discovery and action.

As part of the festival, on October 3, the MIT School of Architecture + Planning opens the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse to the public for a day of exhibitions, conversations, and discovery across the school’s new shared home. DUSP will host several activities as part of this open house. Admission is free!

View DUSP participation on our website: dusp.mit.edu/events/dusp-mit-future-fest-2026

The full program is available on the MIT Future Fest website. Note: Passes to the festival are free for the MIT community, but registration is required.

Presented in collaboration with the MIT Museum, MIT Technology Review, and MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD).

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During MIT Future Fest, Professor Carlo Ratti will discuss a new book, “How AI Sees the City,” in which the leaders of the MIT Senseable City Lab examine the technology’s implications for researching urban life.

Read more about this book in MIT News: news.mit.edu/2026/studying-cities-using-visual-ai-fabio-duarte-martina-mazzarello-carlo-ratti-fan-zhang-book-0924

Image courtesy of the book authors

09/09/2026

09/04/2026

In a story featured recently on the front page of The Boston Globe, Mike Damiano reports on a multi-year research project led by MIT DUSP Professor Karilyn Crockett, several of her students, and collaborators. The project, still in its early stages, aims to build a permanent monument to 133 Black women who are interred in two unmarked graves at Dorchester’s Cedar Grove Cemetery.

“These women were building a city for us and with us at a time [when] they were not given credit or recognition for that at all,” said Prof. Crockett.

Two of the DUSP students involved with the project, Am Chunnanada and Maya Bickel, had the opportunity to meet Rita Steele and her mother Hilarie Jackson — fifth-generation descendants of Sarah Smith, a woman they had researched this summer.

Read more on the DUSP website: dusp.mit.edu/news/dusp-research-project-aims-memorialize-dorchester-black-women

📸 Photo credit: image one courtesy of Globe staff, image two courtesy of Karilyn Crockett

08/21/2026

In a feat of adaptive reuse, the century-old Met Warehouse has become a new home for MIT School of Architecture + Planning. “It’s almost inconceivable that this brick box, which was not designed for human habitation but to store objects, has been opened up,” says John Ochsendorf, director of MIT Morningside Academy for Design. https://news.mit.edu/2026/met-warehouse-opens-new-home-mit-school-architecture-planning-0812

Image: Iwan Baan, courtesy of MIT

08/21/2026

The MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) is recruiting two new faculty members in Urban Design, Environmental Planning, and/or Real Estate Infrastructure Finance.

DUSP welcomes candidates whose research and practice engage pressing questions facing cities and communities, and who will contribute to teaching and research across the department and MIT.

Learn more about the positions and apply: https://dusp.mit.edu/open-positions

Photo credit: Gretchen Ertl

07/29/2026

Celebrating an incredible leader! 👏

Congratulations to Dr. Karilyn Crockett on her appointment to the Barr Foundation Board of Trustees. As a professor at MIT and a nationally recognized leader in urban history, public policy, and equity, Dr. Crockett has dedicated her career to advancing stronger, more inclusive communities.
From serving as the City of Boston’s first Chief of Equity to championing youth leadership through MYTOWN, her vision and commitment to meaningful change continue to inspire. We’re excited to see the impact she’ll have in shaping Barr Foundation’s next chapter.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Crockett on this well-deserved honor! 🌟

🔗Click Here for Full Article: https://www.barrfoundation.org/blog/barr-foundation-welcomes-new-civic-and-philanthropic-leaders-to-board/